50 Book Challenge 2018 Part Two

[southeastdweller]

Welcome to the second thread of the 50 Book Challenge for this year.

The challenge is to read fifty books (or more!) in 2018, though reading fifty isn't mandatory. Any type of book can count, it’s not too late to join, and please try to let us all know your thoughts on what you've read.

The first thread of the year is here.

What are you reading?

I've already read

1. Never Let You Go by Chevy Stevens
2. Good me bad me by Ali Land
3. Don't Wake me up by Liz Lawler
4. One Little Mistake by Emma Curtis

I'm currently reading

1. Anything you do say by Gillian McAllister

In awe of those who have rationed Shardlake. I discovered them and devoured them all last year.

29. The Reservoir Tapes companion book to Reservoir 13. Really enjoyed this. Short but beautifully formed.

Have just started The Bone Clocks . Not my usual thing at all...

Have just bought Shardlake no 1 for £1.58 on Kindle. I have high expectations after reading these threads for a couple of years!

1. The Game Theorist’s Guide to Parenting by Kevin Zollman and Paul Raeburn. I was looking forward to this book, because I like reading about game theory and I’m a parent to three DC (age between 8 and 12), but I found it a little disappointing. I’m not quite sure which audience the authors were aiming for - someone interested in game theory and its application to mutual cooperation within the parent/child relationship, or someone with a passing interest in game theory who is looking to pick up parenting tips to make their kids better at sharing. I think the authors tried to appeal to both groups, and ended up falling between two stools and not really satisfying either. Some interesting bits though.

14 Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

I was given this for Christmas so thought I should read it before I see the person who gave it to me. I wouldn’t have chosen it based on the blurb and it took me a little while to get into it but once I did, I was in their world. I’m not 100% sure about the “story within a story/a famous novelist stole my life” aspect to it but the relationships between the siblings and step siblings were so well drawn. And I was interested - for personal reasons - in the way in which forgiveness played a large role and people found ways to build their own family networks out of situations they didn’t choose. It definitely inspires me to pick up more Ann Patchett as she writes so well in this.

I am desperate for a new Shardlake. :(

Book randomiser employed thanks Piggy although I have adjusted it for my own giant TBR pile into 'classics' and ' non classics' and I'm going to alternate between the two. It has chosen for me The Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho, which is possibly a little unfortunate coming so soon after Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell but hey ho The Randomiser has spoken.

Going to need a lot of convincing about P&P and Zombies Remus opened the graphic novel to a scene where Mr Bennet is shouting “FORM THE PENTAGRAM OF DEATH LADIES!” and had I not been in the quiet zone of the library might have spoken an ungenteel profanity.

A confession: I read P & P with Zombies well before the actual P & P because DH had left it in the bathroom. That was my only knowledge of P & P for a loooong time, making reading the real thing last year revelatory

I'll bet Murine , was it a great disappointment that the Bennet sisters are not bad ass sword masters when you read the original?

I think splitting the randomiser pile is fair enough : I should have done that to be honest!

I allowed DS1 to pick the next number and he has chosen 17, which is A Tale Of Two Cities. Sigh. That's a duty read and am currently teaching Dickens to year 10

murine! Get out

Fortuna dh is reading Lamentation at the same time as me, so it’s about to get pretty sardonic in our house. Yes, when is a new Shardlake coming? I’m trying to stretch the old devil out, but it may be even beyond my eking powers, she said with a shudder.

I couldn’t do the random choice thing, my reading is too dictated by mood and what I fancy. I nearly picked up Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet but I’ve just read about Japan so going to leave it a bit. I had asked my dh what it was about and he said “Trading. At the, er, trading place. In Japan. Or is it Japan? The place on the end where they go. There’s double crossing, love, and a monkey. It’s good”. So I do have an extremely random review generator, it seems

Satsuki I love your DH's description of Thousand Autumns - not sure that I would have recognised the book from the description, but he's got it pretty much all there. It's my favourite of David Mitchell's more recent ones - I wasn't that blown away by Bone Clocks.

Can I assume from your user name that you have a general interest in Japan, or is it more that you're a Ghibli fan?

I'd love there to be another Shardlake. C J Sansom, I believe, was being treated for cancer when he was writing Lamentation. I hope he's on the mend. He seems to be a very private person unlike some other authors who are all over social media all the time.

Gah, I wrote a message and lost it.

Anyway after a positive start I have struggled to find a book that is engaging me to read continuously so I have about 4 on the go.

8 Elenaor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Got this as have heard good reviews about it and sadly I just found it a bit meh, I don't know whether its because it is on the kindle and I don't read much on the kindle or just whether it wasn't my cup of tea.

I've finished book number 15 the warsaw anagrams Richard Zimler. It took me a while to get in to it, so it took a while to finish. A man living in the warsaw ghettos nephew is murdered, quickly followed by a girl being murdered in a simillar way. He sets out to find out who killed them, and why.

I'm not sure what to read next so I'm on the amazon hunt.

Murine

10. Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin An angry ranty look at popular feminism and why it isn't achieving anything. Or rather a whiny strop that feminism is no longer cool since all the cool kids started doing it and they've ruined it.

Offered no real argument or insight, lacked substance and research and was very inconsistent. Read like a teen essay rather than anything else. It might have made for a spirited article with some serious editing but lacked the depth and analysis required for a credible book.

I would so love to be able to form a Pentagram of Death whilst wearing a bonnet and an empire line bodice.

I have only read the first 3 Shardlakes.

I’m saving the next for my summer holidays.

Am fancying the Harriet Vane books.

Murine - that made me laugh out loud.

Perhaps all classics should be read first in a bloodthirsty zombie version, I think my teenage son would quite like a different version of Of Mice and Men...can't say I blame him.

Sorry empire line doesn't suit. Finished Terry Pratchetts a blink of the screen some discworld towards the end, Now on Yaa Gyasi Homegoing as recommended yonks ago on this thread.

Hope you enjoy Homegoing, Froglet. Yaa Gyasi held an author event in Manchester last year; really interesting hearing her talk about the research she did for the book. On a related theme, I've just finished Sugar Money by Jane Harris, of which more shortly.

Pepe, Ann Patchett is one of my favourite authors. She writes with such clarity, and is a very engaging speaker too. I also admire her decision to open an independent bookstore in Nashville after the last shop selling books in the town closed some years ago. Google Parnassus books if you're interested in her story. I really recommend Bel Canto and State of Wonder - both original and interesting reads.

Ha yes ScribblyGum the Bennett sisters were certainly tamer in the real one!

7. The Woman who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes.
   
   Ellis I had finished this book, I found it very hard to follow and not that enjoyable certainly not memorable enough to write an adequate review. I haven't read Marian Keyes before and don't think I would rush to again, there are a few on my want to read list which I will just leave there maybe for a holiday read.

8. Adele by Sean Smith

I listened to this on audiobook on an app my local library uses which means I can borrow audiobooks for free which is wonderful. I enjoyed discovering how Adele became who she is now, how supportive her mum was with her and how private she is. The book kept me engaged until the last chapter when I felt it was waffle to make the book longer.

I have started The Nix however am only 4% in and am finding it hard going so after reading the comments on here about it being good for 30% then rubbish I have decided to leave that one for now.

Off to find a book to read.

13. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson

Everyone in the world seems to have read this so I thought I ought to catch up. Not much to say really - a swift and satisfyingly cheerful read, and jolly good fun. It made me think of American films - all those Ernst Lubitsch screwball comedies - and none the worse for that